S. elegans is abundant in a variety of habitats, including the shallow and deep waters (up to 50 m) of swiftly flowing large rivers such as the nutrient-rich turbid white-water Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and in nutrient-poor black-water rivers. It is also common in the shallow lakes of Varzea floodplains and in the oxbow and mouth bay lakes of black-water rivers (Crampton et al. 2003). The members of this family tend to live within aquatic substrates such as leaf litter or floating vegetation. They are often highly resistant to low oxygen levels.

Robins, C.R., Bailey, R.M., Bond, C.E., Brooker, J.R., Lachner, E.A., Lea, R.N. and Scott, W.B. 1991. World fishes important to North Americans. Exclusive of species from the continental waters of the United States and Canada.